Description
Label Review.
2018 album also available in CD.
Our Overview.
Nick Saloman is a true hero, a musician's musician. A cult entity, his work as The Bevis Frond - which now totals an almost incalculable number of albums, singles, and EPs - blends artfully British songwriting with fuzzed out elements of the American underground.
Nick Saloman continues to fly the psych freak flag! His 2018 delivery 'We're Your Friends, Man' is a 90-minute blast of buzzsaw guitars and the liberating songcraft of The Beatles, presented with a jagged edge, intense swathes and swerving changes that give the material a transatlantic propulsion. Saloman's lyrics, as always, bristle with incisive wit and poignant observations.
Lauded by Teenage Fanclub, his work has charmed J Mascis, a singular catalogue that, despite being vast, is actually forever welcoming. The new album 'We're Your Friends, Man' arrives on December 7th through Fire Recordings, and it's billed as a stellar return from a true iconoclast.
To the point, on the money ‘We’re Your Friends Man’ is dramatic, plucking at the heart strings, spilling one liners, milking the past and crafting something completely new. Every song that the Frond’s front man Nick Saloman writes has the effect of little orchestras tuning up in your head, sketching the scene and filling in the blanks – a feat explained in the cunningly titled ‘Little Orchestras’, no less. And there’s more personal realisations on offer for sure – ‘Growing’, ‘A Hard Way To Learn’ and ’Young Man’s Game’ make for a strident midfield in this 20-track squad.
But doesn’t every Bevis Frond album do that? Sure… The man writes great songs, he knows his way around a verse and chorus as well as he knows the best route around a guitar, he also has his tongue firmly in his cheek throughout.